Nothing Aside: The Week That Was

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March 20, 2005

The Week That Was

While I was in West Virginia last week, I was beyond the reach of current events. Here's what I came back to:

Karen Hughes was nominated as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. If there was ever an example of cronyism at work, this is it. Hughes has no experience with diplomacy and is little more than a Texas Republican party hack. Apparently all you need these days to become an Undersecretary of State is to know the President. That is sad. It speaks poorly for how this administration sees the mission of public diplomacy. Personally I see public diplomacy as one of the most important aspects, if not the most important aspect, of the work of our Foreign Service. Appointing a Texas crony shows disrespect to the hard work of the thousands of Foreign Service Officers who toil each day to make America's image just a bit better.
Paul Wolfowitz, current Deputy Secretary of Defense, was nominated to head the World Bank. Huh? What does Wolfowitz know about international finance? Between 1968 and 1981, Robert McNamara, LBJ's morally-challenged wizkid Secretary of Defense, ran the World Bank - leaving many a Third World country buried under a mountain of debt. But at least McNamara had training for such a position. He had previously been the CEO of Ford and came from a math and econ background. Wolfowitz has no such background. He is through and through a political scientist. Someone show me Wolfowitz's qualifications for this job. Anyone? There seems to be a trend here in the Bush administration of appointing people to high profile jobs they have no qualifications for.
Then there's this right-to-die case. Is this really happening? The U.S. Congress is diving into the workings of one particular court case? This is the biggest waste of Congress' time since... well, ever really. Congressional Republicans are trying to get a federal court to hear the case, even though the Florida courts are doing just fine without the federal government diving in. This is hypocrisy at its best. Suddenly Republicans want the federal government messing with state issues. I think we can officially consider the small government, pro-Federalism, libertarian branch of the Republican Party dead (no pun intended).
I totally called N.C. State over UConn. Awesome. I didn't, however, call Syracuse losing to Vermont in the first round. I guess this is why they call it March Madness.
The Chicago Bulls are poised to make the playoffs for the first time since His Airness retired in 1998 (no, those years on the Wizards do not count). And they aren't even the last seed either. They are currently in the 6th spot. I'm amazed. I have a question though: why is Ben Gordon not starting? He's bound to be the Rookie of the Year, yet he's coming off the bench. The Rookie of the Year should not also be winning Best Sixth Man. What's the deal Scott Skiles? He's the Bulls' third leading scorer, their best long range shooter and best man from the charity stripe. Let's start the Rookie of the Year, k?